The Lost Type Co-op

I came across this type house a little while ago while researching some vintage type for a project and was amazed by their model. As they explain in their own words:
The Lost Type Co-Op is a Pay-What-You-Want Type foundry, the first
of its kind. 
Founded by Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin, originally in a whirlwind 24 hour adventure to distribute a single typeface, Lost Type has blossomed into a full fledged foundry, distributing fonts from designers all over the world, with its unique model.

Users have the opportunity to pay whatever they like for a font, you can even type in '$0' for a free download.

100% of funds from these sales go directly to the designers of the fonts, respectively.

Lost Type takes no cut of sales, and holds no funds.

I think this is amazing and the quality of the typefaces are perfect for those projects that need a typeface with a certain look.  Also if you have half an hour pop over to their blog to see some of their typefaces in action and where they draw inspiration from. Long may the project continue!

Fairytales and Monsters: the final cut.

All my paper cuts have healed up, my scalpel is cooling off in it's case and the Fairy Tales and Monsters art work should start appearing across London from tomorrow. At the moment I'm busy working out designs for tote bags, t-shirts and badges to tie in with the festival as well as suggesting a few activities to keep people busy in the foyer of Kings Place. So stay tuned for more bits as they arrive!

As well as creating the main paper cut illustration I also found myself creating a typeface, which is something I hadn't planned on! After going through all the typefaces I had and a few on line suppliers I started drawing my own. The type face took inspiration from the highly decorative letter types used in storybooks and fairy tales. I wanted it to have something of the decorative drop cap about it, without feeling too cartoony. I also felt that the characters should be linked somehow, as if they had been woven together like the elements of a good story. I know it's not Helvetica on the legibility scales but I'm happy with how it turned out and thanks to all those who gave their opinions along the way ( you know who you are)!

The typeface in development, trying to find a balance between legibility and sensibility.

All in all it looks like it should be a great few days of music, events and fun, well worth catching if you can. For more info pop over to here.
I was also fortunate enough to have the design featured on the Design Week blog which is always nice.

The final logo

A memory for faces?

I just finished reading this fascinating article on typefaces and memory. It seems that some recent research has found that San Serif fonts such as the ubiquitous Helvetica and Arial do not tax the brain due to their easy legibility, but other less legible fonts stimulate the brain into thinking that because of the extra effort needed the brain feels that this may be worth remembering and concentrates more.
I won't regurgitate the article in it's entirety but if you're interested I highly recommend reading it.

Type talk

Just came across this on FPO, a handy reference for all those discussions on typographical architecture. It was designed by Scott Boms, Grant Hutchinson and Luke Dorny for Ligature, Loop and Stem who produced this beautiful ampersand poster, printed on 280gsm Somerset Black Velvet stock in metallic silver and glossy transparent inks (stop drooling!) but it is unfortunately sold out so no Santa treats
this Christmas.

Nifty Knits

Knitting is something I always wished that I could do. I remember being at secondary school and trying to knit squares that could then be stitched together to make a quilt to keep old ladies knees warm down at the local old folks home. After about an hour of frustration I completed my first row (with a few dropped stitches) but that was as far as I could get, the second row remained elusive and that signaled the end of my adventures in knitting! I wished that I had persevered and could incorporate it into my design.

I recently came across the work of American artist Robyn Love and that desire was rekindled. Robyn has used her knitting and crochet skills to make simple but striking statements, her recent typographic work called "Unconditional Yes' is bright, passionate and reaffirming and her 2008 project the knitted mile made me wince at the number of man hours needed to complete a project like that, it made me think of Carol Hummel's knitted "Tree Cosy" which when I first saw pictures of it I thought that it was a clever job in photoshop but no it was for real and made the tree look beautiful. The installation lasted for 3 years and she has gone on to create similar works across America and in India and has even made underpants for trees as well!

The Knitted Mile by Robyn Love

"Unconditional Yes" by Robyn Love

"Not Stained Not Pure" by Robyn Love

 Tree Cosy, Cleaveland Heights by Carol Hummel

The Sum and the Difference

A quick look at the latest release that I have completed for Manchester label Front & Follow. It is described by F&F as a home spun collection of hazy acoustic tunes and electronic interventions from Sone Institute and Dollboy.

The title of the album is "The Sum and the Difference" which refers to a circuit that has two inputs and one output (I have really over simplified that so please forgive me all you circuitry buffs out there!) The cover was a sketch supplied by the artist and from that the idea of using circuit diagrams arose. 

An old sheet of components and their symbols used in a valve radio

I carried out quite a bit of visual research on circuit diagrams, components and the symbols that are used to represent them. This lead me to looking for a way of incorporating some of these elements in to the design. It was then that I thought about LED displays and how they work.  I created a circut based on one used in LED display boards and then created a typeface based on circles to emulate the LED's. Then used this to spell out the two main words in the albums title. I really enjoyed creating the letters for this and if time permits I may develop this into a whole character set.

An early draft for the insert with a 100% magenta text.

If you want to give it a listen it's here on sound cloud and it will be full released as a 3" CD and digital download on the 25 October. If your interested and you pop over to the F&F shop where it is available to buy.